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Part 5 (see note above): A New Direction

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Above: The discovery of the murder of John Darcy, Duke of Meath, as seen in Shakespeare's Maurice (Act II, Scene III)

Limerick, February 1353

Maurice the Younger, 2nd Earl of Desmond sat in what had until recently been the office of the Mayor of Limerick and pondered the map across his wall. There - splendidly laid out in expensive thread, was a representation of the various families and dynasties of Ireland. He had taken the opportunity of, ahem, liberating it before it's previous owner had been gently booted into exile.

The FitzGeralds had been in Ireland for a century and half, part of that original great Norman invasion in the person of one Maurice Fitzgerald de Windsor. If their fortunes had fluctuated they had always been in the forefront of the Old English colony. Such an ancestry was nothing to sneer at Maurice knew it.

For to secure control in Ireland he would need at the very least the aquiesence of his fellow Norman Barons. For now he was second amongst them: the Norman colony in Ireland was pragmatically run with the strongest baron succeeding to be the Lord Deputy - the King's man in Ireland and the Duke of Meath. As the conquerer of Thomond Maurice now found himself next in line for the position - after the incubent John Darcy.

Darcy was 18 years Maurice's senior, but that still left him a mere 35 - concievebly he could hang on for another three decades. A lot could happen in such a time, especially if Maurice's success was a mere thing of straw that could be blown away at any time or even surpassed by one of his brother nobles. Why trust to the vagaries of time, war and ill health?

That was a question that meant much to someone as ruthless, young and ambitous as Young Maurice. So he summoned Eleanor to his study late at night to discuss options.

"I think we should kill Darcy," he informed her with characteristic bluntness.

"Are you sure that's wise Your Grace?" she asked licking her lips nervously, her pretty face betraying the anguished eternal battle going on in her mind between her compulsive honesty and telling her master what he wanted to hear. "If we fail and are discovered..."

Compulsive honesty was a suprisingly useful trait in a Spy Master the Earl reflected. Sure it was occasionally inconvienient, but it did wonders for ones paranioa - the only time to worry about this courtier would be when she stopped talking altogether...

"Well I trust you have improved your talents since the last time?" He cocked an eyebrow quizzically.

"I believe so Your Grace," was her unhappy and dishonest reply.

"Excellent! Do your duty then."

*​

She did, and a few days later Darcy was ambushed in a Dublin Castle hallway, falling under a knife. Things didn't go entirely to plan - one of the conspirators was captured and implicated Maurice, who not unaturally denied it. Things didn't make it to trial - stability and strong leadership was too important, but many a baron looked askance at this rising young man.

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Above: The new Lord Deputy, Maurice Fitzgerald, Duke of Meath

But Maurice didn't care. For only a slight and unproven stain on his public character he had now risen to the post of the most powerful man in Ireland.

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Above: The FitzGerald lands (in dark green), 1154.

Now what sort of a wife would such a man seek?
 
Hmmf. You did not even do the dreaded Rite of the Cheetah. This can only bring bad luck and misfortune to your AAR. Next you'll be stealing leprechaun gold!
 
Good plan to back track, I worked out better for you, eh?

I do have the feeling that young Maurice is going to have a wee bit of a problem finding someone to give up a daughter to him... but then, that could prove to be a bit of and adventure for him, right?
 
King of Men: *Hangs head in shame* My only excuse is lack of knowledge of the Rite. :( :eek:o

Draco Rexus: I think so - though I hope I haven't let my readers down too badly. Just the early part was very dull to play and as bad to write about.

Once again I'm sorry for backtracking guys, but it was either that or I'd have to abandon the AAR. :(


Part 6 : Two Houses

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Above: Mary de Burgh

1354 saw Maurice turn 18 and as a birthday present he made himself Duke of Meath. Which was only fair - he owned most of it anyway.

Not that he visited Meath that year - even his Earldom. Maurice was busy: he was in love.

Dublin on the Liffey was a dirty, crowded and colourful place that easily won over the young Munsterman. The city was a great place for intrigue and politics and he promptly installed himself in Dublin Castle. Other Lord Deputies might prefer the rural retreat, but not Maurice. He'd been a rural nobleman quite long enough. Dublin did not love him back - most of it considered him a half-Irish assassin, but Maurice was sufficently arrogant to disregard this. They'd love him one day even if he had to kill every last one of them to do it.

Of course given the arkward means of inheritance he now laboured under Maurice was quite aware enough of the need for producing an heir as quickly as possible. He couldn't simply trust to fate and wait for an appropriate bride to come along. His own father succumbing to premature old age was evidence enough to suggest that leaving an underage heir was no option at all.

He had been hoping for an Irish bride, to help with the other part of the population. Alas none were available, and even Maurice drew the line at authorising an assassination on some nobleman to marry his widow. So that drastically narrowed the potential choices. Foreign or Old English?

In fact there was a bride in the wings though he had to wait until nearly the end of the year to find out, when the new Duke of Connacht arrived on a visit, his business taking him to Dublin. And brought along his 16 year old sister Mary.

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Above: The potential bride

She was tall and very attractive and naturally energetic - more fond of riding and hunting than the loom or the lute. Perhaps she was a little too English - the de Burghs were a very old and important Old English and a little too rareified to consort with the natives (unlike the FitzGeralds for instance). Still she wasn't a snob, maybe even finding Maurice's O'Brien ancestry teasingly exotic.

So it was that on St. Stephens Day 1354 Maurice and Mary were married in Christchurch Cathedral to the cheers of many - for the smiling new Duchess was very pretty and so evidently happy that the city fell a little bit in love with the Duchal couple, despite itself.

As they left the city for the FitzGerald castle in Desmond, for a honeymoon, some wondered why they left through the the westernmost in the city heading the long road into Meath rather than a shorter sea voyage to Cork. In fact it was a calcultaed reason on Maurice's part, for on the journey they would be passing by Tara hill and he wished to stop a while and... imagine. It felt important.

Though he did not share this with his blushing bride. She was too English and would not have understood.
 
Tch, nooblets these days. Do you mean to say you are ignorant of the great classics of the AAR forums? For your education, I hereby link to the page where in the dreaded Rite of the Cheetah was first described. But read carefully! Such secrets are not meant for the tender minds of noobs.

:p
 
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I'm envious of Maurice, he's got himself quite a catch there. Mayhap with some heir's soon to be on the way, Maurice might just catch some respectability from his subjects in Dublin, eh?
 
The Rite of the Cheetah is not to be trifled with, and ought to be used rarely. The Holy Ones frown upon zealous frequency.

Anyway, two updates since I was last able to check. How would you rate that play by Shakespeare? A great, with Henry V and Macbeth, or a petty one?
 
King of Men: Thanks. Though I hope I never do have to use it! ;)

cuchulain: Thanks. :eek:o

Draco Rexus: Yes. :) I got lucky - Mary did look a little like Keira Knightley. Eagerly hoping for some Irish princess who looks like Kristin Kreuk!

J. Passepartout: Well it's unfinished as yet (and unclear whether it is a comedy or tragedy), but so far its up there with Titus Andronicus...

Part 7: Town and Country

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Above: Medieval Dublin

There was a certain great Dublin family in those days with men heavily placed in the Guild Merchant and in the estates to the south of the city. Though not technically noble, many a minor baron with more blood than money was under there influence and when they began to pile the political pressure on half way through mid-1355 Maurice was forced to take notice.

He had authorised the building of a new and impressive civilian habour in Cork, which though delighting the burghers of his old demense was greeted stonily by the citizens of Dublin. Though they had warmed somewhat to their new master (thanks in great part to his pretty and lively wife) they still neither liked nor trusted him overly. There were paranoid fears that Maurice intended to move his capital back to Cork, such was the favouritism being seen to be showed there. Paranoid nonsense of course: in reality Maurice was merely ensuring Desmond would be wealthy enough to provide his son, when he had one, with a place at head of the queue to inherit. But how on Earth could explain that to anxious townsmen?

So under cover of an annual city fair which brought many notables to Dublin the members of the family and their associates debated what to do to entrench the primacy of Dublin - and remind the Duke just who exactly was the real boss.

In April a group of city officials including the Mayor came to him with a radical proposal: expel all the Irish from the towns!

"Worthless beggars to the man," said the Mayor importantly.

It was a calculated move: there had always been a whiff of Irish sympathy about the Lord Deputy, for all his impeccably Old English bride - after all remember his mother! By the simple yet cruel method of ejecting the native Irish they would alienate any pontential powerbase amonst them forcing Maurice to rely on the English towns and in particular Dublin. It would be an easy matter for the guilds to pull strings... they'd done it with other Lords Deputy after all. It never occured to them that he would fail to be indimidated by such an august body of citizens.

Yet the townsmen had not yet found the mark of their man for Maurice promptly refused, laughed at them and threw them out of Dublin Castle:

"Surely you don't think I'd make enemies needlessly for the likes of you? What can you do if I refuse? Make less money to spite me? Bah!"

Smarting the great and good of Dublin city crawled back to their various homes. Clearly not a man to be trifled with!

Well too bad - every wolfhound had to be tamed no matter how many his teeth. Time to call in favours from the barons...
 
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Um, I'm a little lost there. Did you get an event with a choice to convert Dublin to English culture? :confused:
 
Interesting development. I wonder exactly what the barons will be able to do... and what Maurice will do to the burghers of Dublin when he finds out that they had a hand in whatever the barons attempt. :eek:
 
King of Men: No it's a historical thing. :) At this point most of the townsmen (especially in Dublin) were descendants of English and Welsh settlers and thought of themself as English, as distinct from the 'Mere' (native) Irish. See Norman Ireland

Draco Rexus: Wait and see! :) Also the Dubliners are technically 'citizens' because they live in a city with a bishop - 'burghers' are from towns with no bishop.

J. Passepartout: One can only hope! :D

Part 8: The Barons Revolt

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Above: Landed Nobles of the Pale.

The minor (and some not so minor) landed noblemen of rural Dublin were a tightley knit self interested lot who had been the most staunch of in anyone in Ireland for rejecting Irish customs. No harpers played in their halls, no bards composed their praises, to satirists their faults. They were ferociously proud of their Norman descent, which unlike the degenerate likes of the FitzGeralds and Butlers remained firmly 'English'.

How galling then to be forced to pay taxes to the self proclaimed 'Kings of Leinster'! The MacMurroughs, based in their stronghold of Laigin had been raiding Dublin on and off for a century in slowly increasing severity. By the 14th century it had largely developed into a pattern of taxing the Palesmen to pay off the Leinstermen - unheroic but practical. Except of course to the nobles who fumed in impotence. It was their lands that were the ones raided after all. Not that everyone in Dublin was entirely unsympathetic: some of the citizens saw expanded opportunities in subduing the natives and the alliance between some nobles and some citizens had spread this view.

Unfortunatly, like his predecessors before him Maurice had no inclination whatsoever to conquer Laigin (for the moment anyway). Paranoid claims about being being pro-Irish aside he had little wish to further antagonise his native Irish subjects (and would be subjects). His reputation was still rather tarnished these days and it seemed unwise to invade an Irish kingdom while his throne was still uncertain. Then of course there was the fact that nearly all of his troops were already at war - committed to vassal service in France, meaning he'd have to rely on his own vassals troops - men who might, or might not, be reliable.

Above all was the fact that the King of Leinster had not attacked since Maurice had come to power. Difficult to justify the expense of a war without that.

In November 1355 reports began to filter through to Dublin Castle of raids in the south of the province - farms being pillaged, herds of cattle stolen, villages burned. Maurice, concerned ordered Eleanor down to see what was going on. She returned a week later with alarming news - a large party of gallowglasses were behind the raids! Obviously Laigin men and many in the council began making the case for war.

Maurice was suspicous.

"Consider," he said to his Spy Mistress, "gallowglasses are front line troops - not raiders. Surely if MacMurrough is behind the raids he'd be using kernes or cavalry: light fast moving troops. Besides gallowglasses are expensive mercenaries - if you must raid why not use your own men?"

"So you think someone is trying to force a war?" asked Eleanor frowning at the implications.

"Yes, and I think we both know who that someone is" was the Duke's reply, "I'm sure they'll try something even stronger soon."

He was right. On the 12th December the city was visited to a procession of displaced farmers bewailing being driven from their lands by the hostile Irish. At there head was the young and beautiful wife of Sir Guy FitzSimon, weeping mournfully on her husbands shoulder while Sir Guy, a tall handsome strapping man, every inch the knight stood with arm around her shoulder and looked grimly into the middle distance.

"It's a wonderful piece of theatre you have to give them that," said the Duke, an unpleasant smile on his face, "I'm sure if we went down there to good Sir Guy we'd find his vast estates miracuously untouched by fire and sword, but the public is only going to recall his pretty wife weeping over their lost lands and him so brave and handsome."

"So it's war then," said Eleanor.

"Yes," confirmed Maurice, that same mirthless smile on his lips. "The citizens would lynch me if I didn't take action against these 'raiders'. But I'm young Eleanor and I have a long memory. Let them have their moment and think they control me - or they fooled me. They'll get aroogant and incautious... and then we'll see."
 
Haha, it looks like someone is going to get bitten by Maurice, and if you say that play is like Titus Andronicus I expect them to die painfully shortly before Maurice dies painfully. Although it would be nicer in reality to have Maurice die in his bed.
 
" I am young and have long memory"; that's a great line. It's seems that Maurice can be quite vengeful. Is that one of his traits or your own inclusion?
 
When are people gonna realize that it doesn't pay well (nor does it increase one's life expectancy) to irritate the hero of the tale?
 
Very nice work. Poor Maurice, being forced by internal politics into expanding his kingdom!
 
J. Passepartout: I actually mean't Titus more in supposed quality than gore. Though I guess we can only wait and see. ;)

prussiablue: No it's one of his traits (along with 'suspicous', 'cruel' and 'deciteful'). :D

Draco Rexus: 'Hero' is such a strong word. Maurice is our Protagonist. :)

King of Men: Such is the burden of politics I'm afraid... :)

Part 9: A Point of Duty

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Above: The Second Battle of Glendalough 4th February 1356

The invasion of Laigin was left in the hands of Maurice's vassals, the Earls of Offaly (Osraige) and Waterford (Urmumu). Not by choice but by neccesity - Maurices own men were serving in France and in fact Maurice himself had little choice but to serve there himself (spending most of the first four months of 1356 in Aquitaine drearily marching from one siege to another).

The two earls worked well, rolling up Mac Murrough in two battles at Glendalough and laying siege to Wexford. So swiftly was the campaign won that Maurice sent a letter informing a special mass to be said in thanks for the miraculous dissappearance - without a trace! - of the hundreds of fersome heavily armed gallowglasses. Wisely the Archbishop of Dublin decided not to act on this specific suggestion...

On the 2nd of May Wexford fell and with it resistance came to a close. Maurice was now Duke of Leinster as well as Munster and Meath. Predictably it had a poor affect on his reputation amongst the native Irish. Maurice would now have to abandon any notions of a seperate powerbase from the native Irish. Exactly as the nobles and citizens had hoped!

Or so it seemed, but to their consternation the Duke refused to play ball. When Sir Guy (now essentially the rural leader) visited Maurice in Bordeaux he was introduced to a group of young men.

"These Sir Guy," explained Maurice casually, "are the younger sons of some His Majesties landholders here in France."

Sir Guy blinked, a sudden chilling thought springing to mind. Swallowing hard and hoping he was wrong he simply said: "Oh?"

"Yes," replied Maurice allowing that smile to pass dreamily across his face, "so it occured to me what a wonderful opportunity we have now!"

"Really," said Sir Guy weakly. He wasn't wrong.

"Why yes," was the Duke's airy reply, "I'll need to settle new people on the new lands and who better than this fine body of men? Well practiced in the French war, so of proven steel and skill. Loyal too, I've led some of them personally. Of course they won't inherit fiefs here but they'd be perfect for Laigin."

"Um, some of your barons were hoping, that they might be allowed the new lands..." said a throughly miserable looking Sir Guy.

Maurice reared back in mock horror. "What?! And add yet more responsibilities to my loyal barons struggling to rebuilt after all those years of raiding? No, my dear Sir Guy I could never place such a burden on your shoulders! Be assured my barons were foremost in my thoughts when I decided on the allocation of fiefs..."

As Sir Guy was leaving Maurice cheerfully called out to him. "Oh please do tell the guilds in Dublin that I must regretfully decline their proposals for settling Wexford. Alas! The city of Bayonne was sacked by the French last month and there are now some 2000 refugees that need resettlement. Fortunatly I recalled I did own a city that needed to be repopulated! What luck! Naturally I offered my services to the King. I'm sure they'll understand in Dublin. It is after all a point of duty - and who should know more about that than my dear guildsmen in Dublin?"

*​

Maurice finally returned home in August, though he did not summon his court at once. He had more important matters to think about. The Duchess was pregnant and due in December...
 
Hehe. What a nasty, deceitful, vengeful lad our Maurice is! I like him better with each update. :)